Hall of Fame: Lance Stewart (Corona del Mar)

Richard Dunn

In the days before the one-sport specialization era, Lance Stewart

defined the meaning of an all-around athlete while at Laguna Beach High.

Stewart, who would later coach the Corona del Mar High girls

volleyball program to back-to-back national championships in 1992-93, was

the rarest of the rare three-sport athletes, reaping All-CIF Southern

Section honors in all three (football, basketball and volleyball).

“That’s what’s kind of sad these days,” Stewart said, alluding to the

modern-day multi-sport athlete. “It’s hard to keep up, and if you’re

interested in making a high school team, you’ve got to also play on some

sort of club team. And that doesn’t allow you to play other sports.”

A quarterback and All-CIF linebacker in football, a bruising

basketball forward and powerful, four-year varsity volleyball player,

Stewart was the 1981 CIF Player of the Year for Artist Coach Bill Ashen’s

volleyball team, which won an unforgettable five-game CIF final over

South Coast League rival San Clemente, 6-15, 15-10, 11-15, 18-16, 16-14.

(There were no divisions within the CIF postseason structure in ‘81).

Stewart’s top athletic highlight, however, is beating highly regarded

Capistrano Valley in football, 7-6, his senior year, as the Artists won

the South Coast League title over Capo Valley, Mission Viejo and San

Clemente.

The Cougars were so good that year, they went on to capture the CIF

Central Conference crown under Coach Dick Enright, beating Esperanza,

11-0, at Anaheim Stadium.

“They were just awesome,” Stewart said. “Beating them was an

incredible feeling.”

The 6-foot, 190-pound Stewart was voted South Coast League Player of

the Year and first-team All-CIF Division III (combining three

conferences) on defense.

As a coach, Stewart listed his three years at Corona del Mar as a

highlight. “The whole experience, the whole process was great,” Stewart

said. “Even in my third year (1994), when we didn’t do so well, the whole

experience was just great.”

These days, Stewart misses the “daily dealings” with people and

interacting with athletes. In one of Stewart’s businesses, he has sold

one client “a million dollars worth of stuff and I’ve never even met him.

We talk on the phone or exchange emails. It’s a whole different dynamic.”

Stewart, who earned his bachelor’s degree in fine arts at UC Berkeley,

enjoyed an extensive volleyball coaching career in the early 1990s. The

former director of the Laguna Beach Volleyball Club inherited a talented

CdM squad in 1992, led by Lori Newcomer, Caitlin Pickart, Jennifer

Stroffe and Kim Coleman.

CdM finished 34-0 that season, winning Sea View League, CIF Division

I, state Division I and mythical national titles. The Sea Kings defeated

Laguna Beach in five games for the state championship.

The following year, setter Kristen Campbell, Pickart, Stroffe and

Coleman were the floor leaders as CdM repeated as national champions.

In a memorable campaign between the Back Bay rivals, CdM lost to

Newport Harbor twice in league play as the Misty May-led Sailors won the

Sea View crown. But Corona del Mar defeated Newport in the CIF Division I

final and two weeks later in a riveting state championship match at Cal

State Fullerton, where Stewart’s Sea Kings pulled it out in five, 16-14,

15-8, 16-18, 9-15, 15-10.

May had a match-high 34 kills and 23 digs, while rallying the Sailors

in the third and fourth games, but CdM’s one-two punch of Stroffe (27

kills) and Coleman (23) carried the Sea Kings in the finale.

While at CdM, Stewart was also the men’s volleyball coach at Rancho

Santiago College for two years. In his third year as CdM’s coach, Stewart

was hired at Irvine Valley College’s first men’s volleyball coach. He

remained at Irvine Valley for four years.

Stewart also coached the women’s team Concordia University for one

year, and, as an assistant coach, the UC Irvine women for a year.

Stewart, who stopped coaching and entered private business six years

ago, would like to return to coaching one day.

“You’ve got to look at the reality of the situation,” Stewart said.

“Coaches aren’t paid well, or not nearly as well as they should ... I’ve

got three kids, a horse and a trailer ... I’ve got to make some money.”

Stewart, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame,

lives in Aliso Viejo with his wife, Deanna, and children Chanel, 9,

Larry, 7, and Lance, 2 1/2.

These days, if Stewart isn’t coaching a Little League or junior

basketball team, he’s attending outings for Indian Guides or Indian

Princesses.

Stewart operates a family business with his stepfather selling IBM

business systems, while continuing a secondary vocation in the whole food

supplement business.